Invisible Doctrine by George Monbiot & Peter Hutchison

Author:George Monbiot & Peter Hutchison [Monbiot, George & Hutchison, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2024-06-04T00:00:00+00:00

21.

MOBILIZATION: A CASE STUDY

No part of the neoliberal program can succeed without the stifling of hope. One of the most powerful aspects of neoliberalism is the hopelessness it induces by persuading us that “there is no alternative”—a phrase Margaret Thatcher used so often that it was condensed to an acronym, “TINA.” By presenting this extreme doctrine as if it were nothing but a description of the natural order—the way things are and have to be—the Neoliberal International persuaded many of us that no other strategy was possible.

“There’s no money.” “It would interrupt growth.” “The people wouldn’t stand for it.” Governments repeatedly seek to persuade us that they are incapable of action, unable to govern, that their hands are tied, that their uselessness is baked in. They can’t address poverty. They can’t ensure that the elderly, or the sick, or the addicted are properly looked after. They can’t prevent the collapse of roads, bridges, or school buildings, let alone of ecosystems. It’s all beyond their control. Instead, they teach us to be hopeless and to expect no relief—accelerating the diseases of despair, the eco-anxiety, the nihilism, and the apathy to which so many people understandably succumb.

But governments have repeatedly proven to be capable of decisive action—when they choose to be or when circumstance forces their hand. Whenever the “free market” has stumbled, government has intervened without hesitation, spending whatever it takes to rescue neoliberalism from its own disasters. Examples include bailing out Chrysler in 1980, the airline industry bailout in 2001, the savings and loan crisis of 1989, and the financial crisis of 2008. During the Covid-19 pandemic, money that states had sworn they didn’t have suddenly and magically materialized. Governments discovered they could govern (albeit with varying degrees of competence). People turned out to be prepared, when they felt they were contributing to the common good, to change their behavior radically.

But the problems we face today require even more ambitious intervention: a fair, prosperous, sustainable society cannot materialize under current conditions. We need a radical transformation. Impossible? Let’s take a look at what happened when the United States joined the Second World War.

Before the US declared war, President Franklin Roosevelt had begun to draft troops and build his “arsenal of democracy”: the materiel with which he supplied the Allied forces. To “outbuild Hitler,” he called for levels of production previously considered impossible. But, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the impossible was turned—through sheer force of will—into reality.

The day after the attack, Roosevelt requested a declaration of war from Congress. Once it was in hand, he immediately set to work reorganizing not only the government but the entire nation. He launched a series of agencies that were overseen and coordinated through simple but effective measures, such as the Controlled Materials Plan (CMP)—a system of quotas, priorities, and restrictions on the use of materials to ensure efficient production and resource allocation.[1]

The president introduced, for the first time in US history, general federal income taxes. The government rapidly raised the top rate until, in 1944, it reached 94 percent.

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